Tomatoes, Okra, and Bacon Skillet

Note: We no longer eat pork but turkey bacon works beautifully in this dish!

Some of my favorite recipes begin with “first you fry up some bacon…”, and that immediately tells you a lot about this dish. Garden fresh spoils of summer blend together perfectly to create a flavor that’ll make your tongue slap your mouth. I’ve made countless variations of this dish though the years but this one tends to be my favorite these days – mostly because, well, bacon. I mean, seriously. Bacon.

Take a moment to just stare in appreciation at how beautiful this looks all mixed up together in my vintage dish? ~sigh~ Makes my heart happy and my stomach growl. I don’t reckon you could ask for much more than that.

Objection! Objection! What if you don’t like okra? Oh goodness yes I hear ya, the okra haters out there. A lot of people avoid okra because they feel it is slimy. However, cooking it how we do in this recipe is going to really help that because we are actually sautéing the okra at a very high heat, in bacon grease no less, and this significantly reduces that one characteristic that seems to stand out to some folks. Me? I could eat okra all day long any way you cook it. But like I said, this dish is a dear favorite and has won over many an okra naysayer.

Ingredients above are smiling for the camera.

This time of year I LOVE to use garden fresh veggies. The ones pictured were a gift from my sweet neighbor. If you don’t have fresh available, though, you can use frozen sliced okra and canned whole or diced tomatoes. You can even use frozen chopped onion if you like.

Note: We use turkey bacon nowadays. Gave up the pig nearly three years ago 🙂

In large skillet over medium high heat, cook bacon until crispy, turning as needed. Remove cooked bacon to paper towel lined plate and set aside.

Keep about 4 tablespoons of bacon grease in skillet and pour the rest into your grease jar to save.

Place chopped onion into bacon grease and continue cooking over medium high heat until onion is translucent. Add okra and tomatoes and cook, stirring often, until okra is tender. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper to taste.

*I'm not really suggesting that you make this dish with 50 piece of bacon. However, I would not object to you doing so, provided you invited me to supper. As far as the ingredients in this, you can use more or less of any one item based on what you have on hand.**We use turkey bacon and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the skillet when frying the onions.

3.5.3251

“A strong woman looks a challenge dead in the eye and gives it a wink.”

When cooking a vegetable, do not add meat of any kind, nor broth, nor Bacon.
Okra is my favorite vegetable and it should be coated with cornmeal and skillet fried in vegetable oil.
Yes, I eat bacon but I do not ruin vegetables with meat products to change taste.

Thank you for your opinion, Dot. Mine is entirely different, of course, but that is the wonderful thing about our world. You don’t have to add bacon to your veggies and I can make up for it by adding double 😉
“Ruin” is the opposite of what bacon does to this dish but occasionally my daughter and I have opposite day where we have fun all day saying the opposite of what we mean. I’ll have to use this then! 🙂

Christy, This was my first solid food in almost 3 weeks. I had oral surgery and have been fitted with a full upper plate; not fun. Those who are not familiar with dentures, it’s like having a peanut butter sandwich stuck to the roof of your mouth… forever.
Saturday morning, my wife and I got fresh okra, tomatoes and butter beans from the farmer’s market. I figured, go big or go hungry. I made braised chicken thighs with mushrooms and onions; with a Cajun flare. Then I made your okra, tomatoes and bacon. Then butter beans in a homemade pork stock, with bacon and chunks from the hocks. My mouth was sore but it was divine. Your recipe is spot-on. Thank you.
God bless.

Reply:
Christy, I’ve been cooking for 60 years, professionally and otherwise and am originally from the NYC/Long Island area; now living in SC and learning to cook all things Southern. Baking is a science whereas cooking is a matter of preferences. It really irks my ire when people make their preference appear as though it’s the only way to do things.
I’m with you. Bacon makes just about everything taste better. And don’t believe the researchers who say that you lose 9 minutes of life for every piece of bacon you eat. If that were true, I died in 1798.
God bless.

Well okra is really good the way you said and I fix it rolled in corn meal and fried but it is really good in a gumbo with seafood and in a skillet wth bacon for season along with onion, tomatoes, okra and corn!

Thank you for showing me how simple this dish is. I love Okra and Tomatoes but never learned the recipe. It looked complicated but you have now solved my problem…..and yes!!! it will be made with bacon.

Oh my word that looks delicious! I planted okra this year for the first time, because it’s so hard to find it fresh where I live. The plants are still tiny, but I have hope and am encouraging them to grow up and reach into that sunshine and Make Okra Please!
I’m going to Pin this recipe – thanks!

I love okra any way it is cooked. I have run into the slime problem with some of the family.

There is a very simple solution………for boiled okra or microwave when using water to cook it, just add 1/2 tsp. of lemon juice or vinegar to the water before adding OKRA and you will never have this problem again. It does not change the flavor of the okra.

I make this and sometimes turn it into a main dish meal by adding a pound of peeled, deveined shrimp when everything is done. It takes only 5 minutes or so for the shrimp to cook. Add cornbread and you have a complete meal. Delicious!

This recipe rocks…one of my girlfriends suggested cutting the corn of a couple of cobs…that is good as well if you want a little variation. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. It is just wonderful.

Somehow I missed this when you first posted it. Made it tonight, pretty much doubled the recipe, used the whole package of bacon and also sliced a link of jalapeno summer sausage into it for an electric skillet low carb meal. Two thumbs up from my husband who could not imagine okra without the corn meal. I also left a few okra pods whole and cooked them in with the bacon as I imagined they would take longer to cook – perfection. Served with more uncooked onions and tomatoes. Heaven on a plate!